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PRESIDENT Arroyo Tuesday joined the capsule-laying
ceremony of the planned Bohol-Panglao International
Airport (BPIA), an ambitious P4-billion project
envisioned to be the center of commercial and other
business activities in Central Visayas.
Mrs.
Arroyo was flown in by helicopter from
Cebu and landed at the cleared spot where the future runway would
be located.
She was
greeted with cheers and applause by residents, who were
housed in a temporary shelter. She approached and shook
hands with a few of them.
Mrs.
Arroyo, in a brief speech after the capsule-laying, said
the future airport would be a magnet that would attract
development and benefits not only for the 1.3 million
Boholanos but for the whole country, as well.
“We will
see to it that Bohol would be the center of tourism in
Central Visayas and strive to make the Chocolate Hills
[included in] the seven [natural] wonders of the world,”
she said in Visayan, to the shout of approval from the
locals.
The
island, she noted, has world-class resorts, unparalleled
dive sites and the famed Chocolate Hills to attract
tourists from around the world.
Manila
International Airport Authority (Miaa) general manager
Alfonso Cusi said the BPIA would be finished in 2010,
complete with the needed infrastructure and passenger
terminal.
The Miaa
provided P3 billion of the airport’s capital, while the
transportation and communications department gave P1
billion.
“This is
a major infrastructure development that we were able to
achieve without the need of a foreign loan,” Cusi said.
He said
the Miaa raised P3 billion from the payment made by
Philippine Airlines to cover back accounts of
aeronautical fees.
Transportation Secretary Leandro Mendoza, in a media
briefing, said the Panglao airport is envisioned to be a
hub of various activities in the area, generating
thousands of jobs and spurring a construction and
real-state boom when finished.
“The
BPIA will be the center of export-processing zones like
the Mactan-Cebu International Airport, and will employ
skilled workers to provide the manpower for industrial
projects, parks and export-processing zones,”
Mendoza said.
He said
the government had completed 100-percent expropriation
of the surrounding lands.
“The
aerodrome [for air traffic control] is done, and we have
a very good forecast that Bohol will be a prime tourist
destination now that it is directly accessible by plane
from the rest of the world,” Mendoza added.
Panglao Island
is 10,000 hectares in area, bigger than the
7,000-hectare Mactan, where the Mactan-Cebu
International Airport is located.
The
airport complex will occupy 216 hectares, of which 4.8
hectares is subject to expropriation, according to Bohol
Gov. Erico Aumentado.
He said
the runway is 2.5 kilometers long with reserved area for
a 3.5-kilometer extension.
Bohol
counts among its visitors tourists from
South Korea,
Japan, China and Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Cusi said the Miaa, being a major source of
capital, has the option to securitize its investments by
selling to potential investors the airport’s surrounding
real estate and various projects. “The island has plenty
of room for development,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Mendoza disclosed that part of the
“aeronautical highway” is the plan to connect all the
major tourist spots and potential business hubs in the
country. This is set for completion in 2009.
He said
the plan is the answer to the call of foreign
businessmen to have airports that could be directly
accessed by foreign air carriers. This is seen as a
measure to increase the volume of tourists coming to the
country.
Travel
agencies were reported to have avoided the Philippines
and concentrated on Thailand and Bali in Indonesia, and
other countries in the region where air carriers could
directly deliver their tourists, avoiding the hassle of
airport transfers.
The DOTC
chief said that since the Philippines has already been
connected by a “nautical highway” provided by roll-on,
roll off ships, the next move is the establishment of
the aeronautical highway to connect the rest of the
country’s prime tourist spots.
Besides
Panglao and the airports in Palawan as part of the
aeronautical highway, Mendoza said the airports targeted
for upgrading are those in San Vicente, Palawan;
Laguindingan, Cagayan de Oro; Siargao, Butuan, Zamboanga
and Jolo.
Also
included is that in
San Fernando,
La Union, which is seen to make the famed Sagada in the
Mountain
Province and Alaminos or Sta. Barbara in Pangasinan
accessible.
“Before
2010, we will have the new aeronautical highway in
place,” Mendoza assured the public. |
